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| Austin Belot ran for a 24-yard touchdown on UW-Eau Claire's first possession, and a 77-yarder late in the second quarter. UW-Eau Claire athletics photo by Chico La Barbera |
UW-Eau Claire delivered a ringing upset of No. 6 St. Thomas, while Ithaca survived a challenge from a former rival, and Mount Union had no challenge whatsoever in Saturday's games among D3football.com Top 25 teams.
UW-Eau Claire scored twice in the first 90 seconds and as the Blugolds upset the No. 6 Tommies 21-19 on Saturday night at Carson Park. St. Thomas, which struggled on offense for the first 58 minutes, drove 80 yards on 11 plays without benefit of a timeout and scored with seven seconds left, but the two-point conversion was knocked down at the goal line and Eau Claire survived.
The Blugolds defense brought it all day against the St. Thomas backfield. UWEC picked off Tommy Dolan twice and Dolan overthrew receivers all night. Dolan entered the Tommies' final drive just 19-for-49 passing and completed seven of his final 11, including a 30-yard pass that Gabe Green pulled down in double coverage for a touchdown.
The St. Thomas defense showed up as well, limiting the Blugolds to 62 yards on 6-for-14 passing, but Austin Belot ripped off a 77-yard TD in the third quarter en route to 142 yards on 23 carries. Sam Romanski finished with 10 tackles, including a team-high four tackles for loss, three quarterback hurries two sacks. Victor Martinelli had 14 tackles, three hurries and a forced fumble in the win.
Top-ranked UMHB put together a complete game for the first time on the season, rolling past Howard Payne 65-0. The Cru held Howard Payne (2-2, 1-2 ASC) to 90 yards of total offense in the win. Luke Poorman got the start at quarterback and threw for 129 yards and a touchdown, while Jase Hammack, who led the Cru on their 2018 national title run, added 139 yards on 11-for-16 passing and two touchdowns. The Cru rolled up a season-high 557 yards of total offense in the contest with 288 of those coming on the ground.
Ithaca and St. John Fisher had some epic battles in a previous decade and No. 13 Ithaca raced out to a 35-10 lead midway through the second quarter over visiting St. John Fisher, but the Bombers found themselves in a shootout from there, as Fisher stormed back with 22 unanswered points in the second half. Ithaca would come up with a huge interception in the final minute from junior Khiry Brown to preserve the 38-35 victory and improve to 3-0 on the season.
Joe Germinerio threw four touchdown passes over the first 20 minutes. He found senior Will Gladney for a 57-yard catch-and-run at the 9:50 mark of the first quarter to give IC a 7-0 lead after the 5-play, 92-yard drive. Just over three minutes later, Germinerio delivered a pop pass to Jacob Cooney, who lateraled to Michael Anderson and he raced 35 yards for another score.
Hunter Walsh brought his team back into the game, as the Cardinals racked up 231 yards in the third quarter alone and scored two touchdowns to cut IC's lead to 38-27. St. John Fisher (3-1) cut the lead to three early in the fourth, but had one possession end up short on fourth down at the Ithaca 28 and Brown's interception sealed the game with a minute to play.
Mike Swider became the 29th coach in Division III history, and the second in two weeks, with 200 career coaching victories. No. 11 Wheaton rolled past Millikin 62-0, rolling up 618 yards of total offense in the win. Swider is now 200-51 as a head coach. "I don't look at it as my 200th victory, I think of it as the 200th victory for Wheaton football while I've been the head coach," said Swider. "I haven't won anything. I've just been the guardian while the program has won 200 games."
DeAngelo Fulford ran for a touchdown and threw for three, all in the first 23 minutes of the game, as No. 2 Mount Union rolled out to a 30-0 halftime lead and went on to defeat No. 12 John Carroll 37-14. Six Purple Raiders broke up passes, while Mount Union held JCU to 71 yards on 22 carries. Fulford finished 20-for-30 for 258 yards, throwing two touchdowns to Justin Hill, while running for two touchdowns himself in the victory.
Michael Veldman threw for 136 yards in the fourth quarter, but it was a miss on a two-point conversion which proved to be the deal-breaker as No. 8 Bethel held on to win at Gustavus Adolphus, 35-33. With his Gusties down 28-27, Veldman threw an interception in Gustavus territory with 5:45 left, and Bethel was in the end zone four plays later. But the extra point left Gustavus down by eight, and Veldman went 7-for-8 on the drive, throwing a touchdown to Brice Panning with 17 seconds left. But the two-point conversion pass was a miss out the back of the end zone and the Royals covered the onside kick to remain unbeaten.
Berry broke the game open in the second half as the No. 10 Vikings pulled away from Millsaps for a 31-14 win. The teams traded punts for the first six possessions and Berry led just 3-0 at the half, but Heath Burchfield found Mason Kinsey for a 69-yard score to put Berry up 10-0 on the first snap of the second half and Devin Grier took an interception back 38 yards for a touchdown on the next Millsaps possession to give the Vikings a comfortable lead.
No. 18 Johns Hopkins racked up 23 points in the second quarter and defeated Dickinson for the 13th consecutive time, topping the Red Devils 37-15. Dickinson (2-2) cut the lead to 10-6 early in the second quarter, but Harrison Wellmann returned the kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown and the rout was on. David Tammaro was 26-of-37 for 347 yards and the two touchdowns and also rushed for 30 yards and a score as JHU improved to 3-1.
Dubuque struck fast, with 17 first-quarter points, but Wartburg scored twice in 35 seconds right before halftime and the No. 20 Knights went on to dominate the second half in a 42-25 win. Jave Moore completed 22 of 29 passes for 197 yards and two scores for Wartburg (4-0, 2-0 ARC) in the win. Kordell Stillmunkes had TD runs of 36 and 80 yards in the first quarter for Dubuque (1-3, 0-2).
Anthony McCoy and Mikah Christian combined for five touchdown receptions to lead No. 24 Susquehanna to a 42-13 win, handing F&M its first loss of the season. The River Hawks now find themselves in a five-way tie for second in the Centennial standings as SU, F&M, No. 18 Johns Hopkins, McDaniel and Ursinus are all 2-1 in league play. No. 9 Muhlenberg sits alone atop of the standings with a 3-0 mark following its 42-5 road win at Juniata. Christian caught scoring passes of 49 and 66 yards for the River Hawks in the win.